Anonymously contributed:
I was one of at least 20 workers fired this week (June 19) from the LANS Waste Disposition Project (WDP). This program supports the disposition and transfer of nuclear waste from Area G to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Apparently there is at least a $5M shortfall of money, however we were not informed of any details or reasons for our terminations. There was no warning, just to get our personal belongings and leave the premises, immediately. I have been a contractor for 35-years and while I have been terminated for various reasons I have never been treated so inhumanely and unprofessionally by an "organization". We literally worked weekends and 24-hour shifts to move waste to WIPP and handled extremely dangerous and hazardous materials. We were the workers doing the "dirty jobs" behind the elegant science and technology that never gets any recognition.
There were no management meetings or information leading up to our terminations to give some indication that there were any budget issues. My general impression is that LANS (and DOE/NNSA) is trying to keep our terminations a secret. Good luck to you workers that remain at LANS.
I was one of at least 20 workers fired this week (June 19) from the LANS Waste Disposition Project (WDP). This program supports the disposition and transfer of nuclear waste from Area G to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Apparently there is at least a $5M shortfall of money, however we were not informed of any details or reasons for our terminations. There was no warning, just to get our personal belongings and leave the premises, immediately. I have been a contractor for 35-years and while I have been terminated for various reasons I have never been treated so inhumanely and unprofessionally by an "organization". We literally worked weekends and 24-hour shifts to move waste to WIPP and handled extremely dangerous and hazardous materials. We were the workers doing the "dirty jobs" behind the elegant science and technology that never gets any recognition.
There were no management meetings or information leading up to our terminations to give some indication that there were any budget issues. My general impression is that LANS (and DOE/NNSA) is trying to keep our terminations a secret. Good luck to you workers that remain at LANS.
Comments
LANS/Bechtel has been claiming they don't have to do any layoffs. Of course, if you trust the executive team running the for-profit LLC, you are being very foolish.
Maybe Mikey will mention this at his All-Hands on Monday (July 26th), but I doubt it. He seems to actually enjoy telling lies to the LANL staff.
Brilliant observation... and correct. If it got out that LANS was laying off employees at LANL, then it creates nasty political problems for the LANS executive team and for the local politicians. Therefore, they'll all pretend it never happened.
The Management norm is now lazy, sloppy, erratic and self-serving.
- Pension will be an additional $77 million in the hole for FY2011 (it was already $74 million short for FY2010!)
- Pension is estimated to be an additional $200 million in the hole by FY2012!
Given that the $74 million TCP1 shortfall for this year meant that 3% of staff salary is now being taken to support the floundering TCP1 pension...
* Count on another +3% of your salary being taken to cover the FY2011 shortfalls
* Count on another +9% of your salary being taken to cover the even bigger FY2012 shortfalls
This means you may be looking at a 15% salary cut by FY2012 to keep the TCP1 pension alive.
Even worse, it's not too far fetched to speculate that the new FY2011 9% "pension tax" placed on all projects at LANL to help cover the pension shortfalls might eventually rise to around 33% by FY2012. That will be an real project killer for LANL science.
Mikey had nothing good to say about the state of the TCP1 pension. The future of TCP1 is beginning to look mighty shaky.
Oh, and retirement medical costs born by retirees are also about to go way up for retirees next year. I expect LANS will probably drop all coverage for retiree medical (even for current retirees) within a few more years.
Not to fear, though, as Mikey says LANL is doing great now that LANS LLC is running LANL and frequent lab visitors have noticed that staff morale has really improved!
Sigh! ;-(
The "$1 million dollar man" will soon become a "$2 million dollar man" to catch up with the higher Director's pay over at Sandia. Likewise, his PADs and ADs on the LANS executive team should make out very well in the next few years.
The rest of you poor slobs at LANL? Not so well.
If your investment prognostications for your TPC-2 are this good, you'll be glad you get Social Security, too.
Stas then states he is absolutely clueless about how this problem is going to be resolved; he actually knows TCP-1 participants will fund the burden of this. It is not by accident that Stas provides nothing written on viewgraphs or any written information on this. It is unfortunate that lab employees appear to care less about lack of employee rights and lack of representation with these limited liability companies (LLCs). The days of wine and roses are over, again!
The interesting question that should be asked is... why did NNSA let UC get away with drastically under-funding this pension from the start? TCP1 at LLNL got a far more generous lump sum on its creation.
It's as if NNSA seems to delight in the idea of the destruction of the lab pension system at LANL.
August 8, 2010 12:10 PM
Yes, we do. (Captain D'Ag)
If the shortfall is more than a certain faction of the obligation, ERISA recommends that the employer make up the shortfall with increased contributions over a 7 year period. The Doe-heads will comply with ERISA as a matter of policy.
The shortfall can be made up by increased employer and employee contributions.
Guess which one the fat lying Wop is preparing the groundwork for.... and he'll collect a bonus when works it out.
Aren't scientists great! All about themselves.